


find someone

by perpetual_gayness



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, F/F, Fluff, choni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 12:30:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13998375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetual_gayness/pseuds/perpetual_gayness
Summary: "Find someone who'll love me the way she did."Easy, Toni thinks; she can definitely do that.





	find someone

Madison Archer tells Cheryl she loves her and then she kisses her, and it's amazing. This is the first time Cheryl has felt so free since Heather, since that night in her bed when shoulders shaking with laughter turned to shoulders heaving with sobs. It's amazing; Madison is amazing.

They started out as just two cheerleaders, hot as hell, who would get more of a workout in the changing room after practice than they would during it (it makes it so much easier when you're both half naked already). They were just two teenagers experimenting, trying each other out for size, seeing what went where when both of you have long hair that seems to constantly need tucking behind an ear. They were just two girls fooling around, until they weren't. 

Cheryl's serious about this girl now. She teases her when they're alone. _Teases_ , gentle and caring, not _mocks_ like she does with everyone else. She takes her girlfriend home under the pretense of a friend and her Mom doesn't bat an eye because Madison, this girl with the pretty smiles, has a big family name and even bigger family money. Penelope Blossom doesn't even consider that this girl with the pretty smiles is arched over her daughter, connected by the lips and the hips with her hands in Cheryl's crimson hair as soon as the door clicks shut. And it's amazing. 

Or, at least, it was. 

In the beginning -- the first month, the second, the third -- Madison didn't care that Cheryl wouldn't even look at her when there were others around. It didn't matter that Cheryl still had both feet planted firmly in the closet, and no amount of _I love you_ s could budge her. _Doing it in secret makes it more exciting anyway_ , she said. _This relationship is us, you and me, why would anyone else even need to know?_ she laughed it off. _I love you, Cheryl,_ she promised. 

But in the middle -- the fourth month, the fifth, the sixth -- it bothered Madison a little more with each passing day. Slowly, it wasn't okay for Cheryl to introduce her as a friend anymore. She was her girlfriend, wasn't she? Each time it came up, Madison would push Cheryl just that little bit harder. Sometimes, just the thought of actually doing what Madison suggested, saying those words, was enough to make Cheryl feel physically sick. No, she couldn't do it. 

And now, the end. It's happened like this a million times before, but this time when Cheryl refused to hold Madison's hand while they ate at Pop's, she broke. Cheryl flinches from her girlfriend's touch like she always does when they're not completely alone, because the neon red open sign could just as easily be the vibrant shades of her mother's hair, and every time the bells chirps to signal the coming of another customer, it could just as easily be her. If her mother saw her holding hands with another girl --  _again_ \-- she would. . . well, Cheryl doesn't want to think about what she'd do. That makes her feel sick too. 

Madison knows this, but apparently Cheryl's used that excuse one too many times, and it isn't viable anymore. She flinches, she always does, and her girlfriend gets up, tells her she's done -- they're done -- this isn't enough for her anymore, and leaves. 

But the end can also be the start, and while Cheryl curls into the pain of her sorrow, Toni Topaz (the hero of our story) sees a prime opportunity to snap a photo. The beautiful redhead, ever so slightly stooped so the flashing neon signs catch the colour of her hair and not the pallor of her face, bathed in that array of lights -- stunning. She raises the camera to her left eye, squints, focuses. . . _there!_ She get's the picture, and it's perfect. 

(The ones she gets of Cheryl always are.) 

It's only when she goes inside that she notices quite how wrong this image is. 

Cheryl should not be alone -- Toni knows for a fact she had a date with Madison tonight; she spent two painstaking hours in the haunting Blossom household helping Cheryl get ready. Cheryl should not be alone, and she definitely should not be crying. 

Concern spikes in the base of her stomach, and she's sat in the booth rubbing (hopefully) soothing circles into Cheryl's shoulder before she can put the protective lens back on her camera. And Toni _never_ forgets the lens. 

"Hey, Bombshell, date didn't go quite as planned?" It's weak, she knows, but humour's worth a shot, right?

Cheryl shakes her off and trembles with the effort of her misery. "I'm not in the mood, Toni. Just get your shake and go."

There. _Toni_. Cheryl called her Toni. Not _Topaz_ , not _Cha-Cha_ , not any one of the list of demeaning nicknames she deems fit to adorn her with. Something is very wrong. 

"Cheryl. . ." softly, this time, sincere and direct. "What happened? Where's Madison?" 

A scoff, watery and diluted by tears, but it's there. "Oh, she's gone. I pushed her away too. I tried, but I wasn't enough for her, either. I wouldn't let her wait for me after class, and I wouldn't pair with her during cheer practice, and I wouldn't do that Chem project with her, and I wouldn't hold her _stupid hand_." And with that, Cheryl, along with her composure, is gone. 

Toni is at a loss for words. This is a rare moment for Cheryl. Raw emotion, exposed and open to attack, and in public no less. With no idea of how to even begin being subtle about this, Toni decides to let the emotional wreck that is Cheryl steer on this one. "What can I do? What will make this better?" 

Bloodshot eyes look up at her through a curtain of red, cheeks glistening with freshly shed tears. "Find someone," she says, dead serious despite the catch in her throat, "find someone who'll look at me like she did."

As soon as the words leave those lips -- lips with lipstick that should have been well smudged by now, but isn't -- Toni has her head tilted to one side. There's something new in her eyes now, something that isn't the hard concern that was there before. Something softer. "Okay," that one's simple, "what else?" 

Sitting up a little, Cheryl swallows as much of the lump in her throat as she can without choking. "Find someone who'll love me the way she did." 

Easy, Toni thinks; she can definitely do that. "Cheryl," a pause, "you know I love you, right." 

"No," Cheryl shakes her head and it stalls Toni's heart for a beat or two, "no, Toni. I mean, well, not as friends. I mean someone who can, I don't know, brush my hair behind my ear without it being awkward. That kind of love." 

Slowly, hesitant at first, Toni's hand moves from her lap to be level with Cheryl's ear. Then, starting with a twitch, she catches the swathes of shocking red hair and swoops it behind an ear in one fluid movement, tracing a blush over Cheryl's cheek where her fingertips brush her skin. Somehow, it isn't awkward at all. She thinks this is what Cheryl meant. "Hmm," Toni muses, "and?" 

Cheryl, stunned into a rare moment of silence, takes a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking. "Find someone, someone who'll touch me the way she did."

Oh, this one's easy, too. The hand Toni just used to tuck Cheryl's hair behind her ear creeps across the faux leather seat, in seconds it's trailing across the short distance of Cheryl's thigh until it's reached her hand. Toni pauses there a moment, the two girls connected by the softest touch. Then, slowly, she's running her hand up her wrist, and then her arm, and now she's clasped her trembling shoulder ever so gently. A light squeeze, comforting more than anything else, and the hand is retracted. "Anything else?" 

"Find someone"--Cheryl's confident about it now--"who'll hold me the way she did." 

This time, it's Cheryl shifting in her seat as Toni pulls her close. One arm snakes around the taller girl's shoulder, from there it's a simple matter of dropping into a slight slouch and her head is rested comfortably on Toni's shoulder. A second hand rests on her knee and it feels like home. "Like this?" 

"Hmm, exactly like this." 

"And is there anything more?" 

"One last thing." Cheryl stops for a moment, there's a rustle of pink and red hair tangling as she moves to gaze up at Toni. The words are in her eyes, "Find someone who'll kiss me the way she did." 

It's all the encouragement Toni needs. The hand that was on Cheryl's knee move to cup the side of her face and the one on her shoulder guides her upwards ever so slightly. Toni leans down, and just like that they're kissing. Lips on lips, both of them smiling into it. The broken pieces of Cheryl's heart slot back together again, because really it was only bent in the first place. Sparks don't fly and fireworks don't go off, but heat blooms in their chests and where their skin meets it's the best feeling in the world. Cheryl's found someone who does all of the things she mentioned better than Madison ever could. 

And it's amazing.


End file.
